Original Dulcimer Players Club - Dulcimersdulcimers.com/Program_2014.pdf ·  · 2014-05-26with Jeff Gardner on guitar and with a five piece group called Just Jammin, per- ... as

The

Original Dulcimer Players Club presents

Three Evenings of Acoustic Music Featuring the Hammered Dulcimer

Thursday, Friday and Saturday July 17, 18 and 19, 2014

7:00 p.m. Osceola County Fairgrounds

Evart, MI

2

Thursday Evening

Thornapple Valley Dulcimer Society 6:15 Silver Strings Dulcimer Society 6:40

7:00 p.m.

Live from the Squirrels’ Nest

Jon Weinberg

Nathan Pultorak

Carry It On

Golden Griffon

Ilace Mears

Jeff Hames

Matthew Dickerson

Sarah Morgan

Lisa Ferguson

3

Friday Evening

Mountain Dulcimer Show begins at 6:30

7:00 p.m.

David & Annette Lindsey

Pam Bowman

Wanda Degen

Scott Freeman

Moriath

Butch Ross

Timothy Seaman

Stephen Seifert

Andy Young

Bing Futch

4

Saturday Evening

Hammered Dulcimer Show begins at 6:15

Dulcimer drawing for ODPC members at 6:50 Must be present to win

7:00 p.m.

Bill Robinson & Friends

Katie Moritz, 2013 National HD Champion

Karen Ashbrook & Paul Oorts

Ted Yoder

Guy & Sharrie George

Jess Dickinson

Randy Clepper

Steve & Ruth Smith

Stephen Humphries

Fiddle Whamdiddle: Steve Eulberg & Vi Wickam

Rick Thum

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Karen Ashbrook & Paul Oorts

In 1976, Karen built her first hammered dulcimer as a high school project. She is now based in the Washing-ton, DC area with her hus-band, Belgian-born Paul Oorts. Karen teaches and per-forms a wide variety of tra-

ditional music. She has produced, “Playing the Ham-mered Dulcimer in the Irish Tradition” book/CD set and “ Play the Hammered Dulcimer,” a DVD and booklet with instruction. Paul performs both as a lead player and accompanist, and together they travel and perform at festivals around the US and Belgium. Paul directs the hammered dulcimer or-chestra, Carillon. Karen and Paul joined musical forc-es in 1996 and have produced several recordings.

www.karenashbrook.com www.pauloorts.com

Pam Bowman

Pam Bowman is a native of the Evart area, hailing from Marion, Michigan. She has been performing with the hammered dulcimer for about 16 years as a duo with Jeff Gardner on guitar

and with a five piece group called Just Jammin, per-forming gospel, country, and bluegrass music. In 2005 Pam won the Southern Regional Hammered Dulcimer Competition in Mt. View, Arkansas. Pam gives private lessons and group lessons on the hammered dulcimer, as well as teaching work-shops and performing at various festivals. Pam also performs her unique hammered dulcimer style and arrangements for many other venues. She has eight recordings available.

[email protected]

Carry It On Carry It On is a mid-Michigan based Peter, Paul, and Mary tribute band. Its members are Johnny Hunt of Midland, and Lee Anne Whitman and Mike Giffin, both of Saginaw. If you have fond memories

of Peter, Paul, and Mary, as most of us from the Ba-by Boomer generation do, you will certainly enjoy hearing such well-known and loved classics as Puff, the Magic Dragon, Blowin' in the Wind, Where Have All the Flowers Gone?, and This Land is Your Land recreated, as well as others less familiar, yet true to the original songs from their broad repertoire. You can learn more about Carry It On at their Face-book page, www.facebook.com/CarryItOnPPM and their website, carryitonppm.blogspot.com, and you may contact the band regarding their calendar and for booking information at their e-mail address: [email protected]

Randy Clepper

Originally from Tennesse, Randy now lives in Ohio. He is an accomplished player of Irish traditional music on cittern/bouzouki, fingerstyle acoustic guitar, and ham-mer dulcimer. His playing

has been described as “magnificent”, “strong and confident” (Dulcimer Player’s News) – “a Celtic guru” (Wood ‘N Strings). Randy’s background co-vers many styles of music including traditional mu-sic from around the world, folk, pop, rock, jazz, classical, funk (yes, funk) and bluegrass. He is an active player in the Central Ohio Irish music scene. He has also taught and performed at many tradi-tional music and arts festivals across the country. In 2003 he teamed up with well-known dulcimer players Dan Landrum, Mark Alan Wade, and Bob McMurray to form the group, Hammer On, pro-ducing a CD of the same name.

www.randyclepper.com

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Wanda Degen

Wanda's lifelong love of music shines through in her perfor-mances as she sings and plays the autoharp and "both kinds" of dulcimers! She has taught pri-vate lessons at Elderly Instru-ments in Lansing since 1977. Wanda won the Great Lakes Re-gional Mountain Music Auto-

harp Competition at the Flint Bluegrass Festival in 1983 and has placed in the top five as a finalist at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas, and at the Mountain Laurel Autoharp Gathering in Newport, Pennsylvania. Through her work as a teaching artist with two national programs - the Lincoln Center of New York and the Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learn-ing Through the Arts of Vienna, Virginia - thousands of Michigan school children have experienced both hearing and playing dulcimers & autoharp.

www.wandadegen.com

Matthew Dickerson

For seven years Matthew has been delighting audiences with his sweet and cheerful style of playing the ham-mered dulcimer. He developed a keen interest in the instrument in his early teens after learning a variety of other instruments, includ-ing guitar and penny whistle.

Celtic music led him to discover the unique and pleasant sound of the hammered dulcimer. He built his first dulcimer from scratch. After teaching himself to play, he quickly became an ac-complished artist with the talent and skill neces-sary to win the Mideast Regional Hammered Dulci-mer Competition in 2012. Shortly after, he entered and won the National Hammered Dulcimer Cham-pionship at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield. Matthew continues to reach for new heights in both style and performance as he joins the ranks of the best dulcimer players in the country.

www.thedulcimerguy.com Jess Dickinson

When Jess is not at his two day jobs (Mississippi Supreme Court justice and law school professor), he is posting free beginner and in-termediate hammered dulcimer instruction videos on his website. His book, “The Essential Ham-

mered Dulcimer Instruction Manual”, is a best-seller. His bluegrass band, the Bluegrass Appeal, recently rec-orded a CD From Dublin to the Delta with guest per-former Stephen Seifert. Jess began performing ham-mered dulcimer in Mountain View, Arkansas in 1990 at the Ozark Folk Center, where he played in the annual Christmas show for 7 years. He has instructed ham-mered dulcimer at numerous festivals and workshops, and he is the organizer of the annual Deep South Dulci-mer Competition at William Carey University. Jess is the 2013 Southern Regional Hammered Dulcimer Champion, and he and Jeff Hames won 1st place in the 2013 Southern Regional ensemble competition.

www.DickinsonDulcimer.com

Lisa Ferguson

Lisa, a native of Houston, TX, grew up studying classical music on the piano. Now living in Tennessee, she first heard a hammered dulcimer as it was played by Dan Landrum. She fell in love with the haunting sounds of

the instrument and began taking lessons from Dan. Eventually she bought a used Jerry Reid Smith dulcimer. She also studied with Stephen Humphries. In April, 2009, she entered and won the South-ern Regional Dulcimer Championship. In Sep-tember of 2009, she won the National Ham-mered Dulcimer Championship in Winfield, KS.

www.lisarayferguson.com

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Guy & Sharrie George

Guy is a multi-faceted instru-mentalist with jazz-influenced

roots. He is a performer, instructor, author/publisher and recording artist. His diverse playing style adds a new twist to the sounds of the hammered dulcimer, pennywhistle, steel drum and saxophone, all of which he incorporates into his performances and teaching. Guy studied jazz performance, arranging and compo-sition at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. He travels throughout the US and Canada, performing and teaching at various venues and festivals. His teaching style is relaxed and fun, as he teaches tunes of many different genres and styles. In addition, he incorporates methods for more advanced practicing and playing techniques, while simultaneously enter-taining his students. Guy and his wife, Sharrie, live outside Cleveland OH when not traveling.

www.guygeorge.com

Scott Freeman

Scott comes to Evart from Lafayette, IN where he lives with his fami-ly. In 1999 he won the National Hammered Dul-cimer Championship at Winfield, KS. Scott has

worked with the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis as a resident teacher and introduced the dulcimer to thousands of inner city youth through workshops and performances. Today he continues to work with local arts and education programs to bring tra-ditional music into the schools through hands-on interaction with “Fiddlers in the Schools”, spon-sored by the Indiana Fiddlers’ Gathering. Scott rec-ords with Ouibache (WEE-ba-SHAY) Records, a rec-ord label dedicated to traditional and Americana music. He has four albums of mostly original music.

www.scottevanfreeman.com

Bing Futch

Bing's high-energy, crowd-pleasing shows and unique approach to the mountain dulcimer have made him a popular na-tional act from California to Connecticut.

Combining a respect for traditional folk music with a firm grasp of modern popular styles, Bing entertains and amazes audiences with his dizzying mixture of material on not only mountain dulcimer, but also Na-tive American flute and ukulele as well. He has be-come a regularly featured artist at festivals, fairs, con-cert halls, theaters, pubs, clubs and cafes across the country. He is the longtime producer of the "Dulcimerica" podcast, viewed by over a million peo-ple worldwide, and he has released a number of books and CDs which are available at:

www.BingFutch.com

Fiddle Whamdiddle: Steve Eulberg &

Vi Wickam Fiddle Whamdiddle is the exciting cross-pollination of two award-winning instrumentalists from Fort Collins, CO. Vi Wick-

am, twice the Colorado State fiddling champion and a 4-time finalist in the Grand Masters’ Fiddler Con-test, says: “Music is in my blood. Every note I play is for nourishment.” Steve Eulberg, who has won 5 prizes in the National Mountain Dulcimer Champion-ship and 3 times been a finalist in the National Ham-mered Dulcimer Championship, says: “Playing dulci-mer makes me feel like I’m dancing on strings.” Their facility with their instruments, their knowledge of and delight in a wide variety of tunes & styles, and welcoming rapport with audiences weave to-gether to produce toe-tapping performances that nourish and inspire audiences of all ages.

http://www.steveeulberg.com/

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Stephen Humphries Stephen Humphries is a music educator, a freelance percussion-ist, and a National Hammered Dulcimer Champion (2007). In addition to performing

and teaching at dulcimer festivals, Stephen is an adjunct professor of music at Covenant College (Lookout Mountain, GA) and Lee University (Cleveland, TN). He also teaches private lessons and percussion classes for K-12 students in Chatta-nooga, TN, where he resides with his lovely wife, Taryn.

www.StephenHumphries.com

Jeff Hames

Jeff started learning the mountain dulcimer at the age nine by watch-ing his grandparents play. As Jeff grew, so did his love of music and his ability to play songs that were not customarily played on a mountain dulcimer. Jeff also won the Southern Regional Mountain

Dulcimer Competition in 2006 and then went on to win the National Mountain Dulcimer Championship in Win-field KS that same year. He won those same honors again in 2013. During 8th grade Jeff was asked to play traditional mu-sic for a video his class produced. The project, titled Natchez Trace Television, is part of the Tracing Our Trace project funded by the National Geographic Socie-ty and the Mississippi Department of Education. He al-so played his mountain dulcimer in solo with his HS marching band during a performance of Aaron Cop-land’s Hoe Down, a performance that won superior ratings for the band in subsequent competitions.

www.hamesdulcimer.blogspot.com

David & Annette Lindsey

David and Annette make their home in Bennington, OK. David has been building and playing the hammered dulcimer since 1978. They have been playing as the Sweet Song String Band since 1979 and have helped form the Lone Star State Dulcimer Society

and the Red River Valley Dulcimer Club. They are well known and sought after for their music in re-enactor’s dances and activities. David and Annette teach and per-form across the U.S. in many well-known festivals where David sells his nationally recognized hammered dulcimers.

www.davidsdulcimers.com

Golden Griffon Stringtet

The Golden Griffon Stringtet has been performing since

1992 at contra dances, civil war re-enactment danc-es, weddings, fairs, and other cultural events, in-cluding the Ohio Renaissance Festival, the Great Lakes Folk Festival, the national convention of Abra-ham Lincoln Presenters, and the National Square Dance Convention. The band consists of Loretta McKinney on hammered dulcimer, Hall of Fame fid-dler Jim McKinney, Renzo Hutchinson on guitar, and Bob Ewald on bass. Members of the band have won numerous performance and composition contests sponsored by the American String Teachers Associa-tion, the National Federation of Music Clubs, and others. They have six recordings available: Propinquity – 1993 A Fine Collection - 1995 Christmas - 1995 Band Call - 1999 Gems of the 19th Century - 2006 Newfangled Barn Dance - 2013

www.GoldenGriffonStringtet.com

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Ilace Mears

Once upon a time, Ilace was a happy classical violinist. Then, one day she heard a ham-mered dulcimer at Silver Dollar City and fell head over ham-

mers in love. Her ears (and her mind) have been opened and she now lives in a very different musical world, one she wouldn't trade for anything! As the 2012 and 2014 Southern Regional Hammered Dulci-mer Champion and a finalist in the 2012 National Hammered Dulcimer Championship competition, she enjoys introducing the instrument to the resi-dents of the Branson/Springfield area of Missouri, and especially to the preschoolers she teaches. It is her personal mission to promote the playing of "Roscoe" at every jam. However, that tune is not included on her debut CD, "Peace Like a River," which she fervently hopes is finished by now so she can live happily ever after.

www.ilacemears.com

Moriath

Regina Kate Cobean on fiddle, and Griffin Cobe-an on bouzouki, whistle, and flute bring to you the music of distant Ire-land. This seasoned pair

of Michigan musicians send audiences on a pilgrim-age through the lands and music of the Celts. Whether the venue is a pub or festival stage, there are no limits on Moriath’s capability to become a crowd favorite. Moriath makes and performs music for the joy of the audience as well as their own.

E-mail contact: [email protected]

Sarah Morgan

Sarah started her musical journey at 7 years old and has fallen in love with traditional and folk mu-sic through the years. A native of East Tennessee, Sarah has incor-porated the rich musical heritage of the area into her music. At 18,

Sarah placed 1st at the 2012 National Mountain Dulci-mer Championships. A year later, she went on to be-come a finalist in the 2013 International Acoustic Music Awards. The music of Sarah Morgan embodies her respect and joy of folk music and her creative approach to

arranging. Backing traditional Appalachian melodies and haunting old time tunes with fresh harmonies and a progressive drive, she lends a new feel to seemingly "old" tunes, while accompanying pure and heartfelt vocals with the unpretentious sound of the Appalachian dulcimer.

www.sarahmorganmusic.com

Live from the

Squirrels’ Nest

Led by Jim Rathbun and Dale Palecek,

the Squirrel’s Nest was officially established on De-cember 3, 2011 at the Kaiser traditional Christmas party for their music friends and other tag-alongs. The group (formerly known as the Music Police) will be represented by some members of the Squir-rels' Nest, a high energy jam here at Evart. Those performing on stage with Jim and Dale will be Sha-ron O’Connell, Liesl, David, Jeffrey and Sherese Mom, Julie Arnold, and Kelly, Greg and Lynne Ellen Kaiser. A larger group of squirrels recently performed at the Whitecaps baseball game in Grand Rapids, playing music prior to the game and at the 7th in-ning stretch. It was a celebratory weekend for the landmark birthday of Jim, one of the head nuts. If you enjoy their music, you can hear more of it being played each evening in the corral area. Just look for the funny hats, the flashing lights, and lots of bling.

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Katie Moritz

Katie is a multi-instrumentalist whose specialty is the ham-mered dulcimer. Her level of skill is evidenced by her win in 2013 in Winfield, KS, as the National Hammered Dulcimer Champion. She began playing in 2006 and studied under Bill Robinson. Her studies with him led her to travel

to many festivals throughout the country. She combined her scholarly studies of music with her informal training, to develop a style of dulcimer playing that is uniquely her own. In 2010 Katie met and teamed up with Lisa Ferguson, the 2009 National Hammered Dulcimer Champion. They be-gan a recording project that was completed in 2012 with the album, Kaleidoscope, a CD of dulcimer duets filled with energizing melodies and driving rhythms. Katie gives solo performances, as well as traveling to join in concert with Bill Robinson and Lisa Ferguson.

www.katiemoritz.com

Nate Pultorak

Nate Pultorak, an 18 year old hammered dulcimer musi-cian from Joliet Illinois, has been playing since 2006. His style ranges from quiet and melancholy to fun and ener-getic. He has been regarded

for the quality of his playing and his composition skills on this instrument, as recognized by the Friends of the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2012 he won “Best Original Dulcimer Tune” and “Kentucky State Grand Champion” at the Ken-tucky Music Weekend, and placed second at the National Dulcimer Competition in Winfield, Kan-sas. He placed third in the competition in 2013.

www.NathanPultorak.weebly.com

Butch Ross

Butch hails from Chattanoo-ga, TN, and has been a tour-ing singer/songwriter since he was given a mountain dulcimer as a birthday pre-sent. At first, the instrument was a curiosity, but before long it became his instru-

ment of choice. Butch has taken a simple folk instru-ment and energized it with technical wizardry, in-ventive arrangements and a healthy dose of rock-n-roll attitude. He transforms the lowly mountain dulcimer into a virtuoso's instrument, drawing from it unex-pected power and expressiveness. His genius is in the fact that he found something unique to him. He demonstrates what the instrument should sound like.

www.butchross.com

Bill Robinson & Friends

Bill has been perform-ing for 60+ years and has received numerous awards, including ODPC Lifetime Member with Paul VanArsdale, Hall of Fame, and Pioneer. He

has been teaching the hammered dulcimer and promoting his students for over 40 years. Bill loves to jam and welcomes all to jam (you can usually find him in the ODPC Pavilion). Bill hopes you enjoy his original tunes. He is a third genera-tion player from Illinois.

www.billrobinson-dulcimer.com

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Stephen Seifert

Stephen has been playing the mountain dulcimer since 1991. He has toured with David Schnaufer, per-formed with orchestras around the country and been a featured performer in Japan. Since 1996 he has

taught and performed at festivals and dulcimer clubs in Los Angeles, Detroit, New York, Pensacola, Houston, and many others. "I want to play all styles of music on the mountain dulcimer. I also want to help my fellow dulcimer players pursue their musi-cal desires, whatever they might be, with the least amount of time-wasting detours." Most recently, he has been teaching hundreds of students around the world via an online Dulcimer School.

www.dulcimerschool.com or www.stephenseifert.com

Timothy Seaman

Tim is a uniquely expres-sive player using his special separated-hands tech-nique as well as colorful chording and rhythm to evoke drama and mean-ing. After 19 years of teaching English, he went

full-time with his music in 1994. He has produced 15 of his own CDs on Virginia Parks, Christmas, and Celtic themes, with titles like Sycamore Rapids and Here on this Ridge. When you tour Virginia you might see his albums in museum and park shops. Although he lives in historic Williamsburg (a great kayaking area), he's a backpack-er at heart and loves to get out onto those ridges that inspired many of his compositions!

www.timothyseaman.com

Rick Thum

Ranked as the most influ-ential dulcimer player of the last decade by readers of Dulcimer Player News, Rick has made his mark on every aspect of the ham-mered dulcimer world. He brings a combination of passion and friendly acces-sibility to his teaching that

make his workshops and classes favorites at festi-vals across the country. He has tapped this teaching experience to produce a CD instructional series for hammered dulcimer, the Original Song of the Month Club. Rick is also the designer of the highly-regarded hammered dulcimer bearing his name. Yet for all his time in the studio, onstage, in the classroom, and in the luthier’s shop, Rick is most at home at a late-night jam session.

www.rthum.com

Steve & Ruth Smith

North Carolina’s Steve

and Ruth Smith, voted

the 2013 "Americana

Instrumental Group of

the Year" by the Appa-

lachian Cultural Music

Association's 1st Annual

Blue Ridge Acoustic Uprising, have been featured on

the PBS TV series Song of the Mountains, NPR’s All

Songs Considered and Thistle & Shamrock. Dirty Lin-

en Folk & World Music Magazine says “Ruth's touch

on the hammered dulcimer is absolutely magical,

with exquisite phrasing…” Steve, an ASCAP award-

winning songwriter, adds guitar, banjo, and vo-

cals. "The soul of mountain music and the gentle

grace of mountain air.” (Ohio Magazine)

www.steveandruth.com

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Andy Young

Andy is a Chicago-based musician, sought after at music festivals nation-wide. His concerts infuse expressive musical ar-rangements with humor and insight to provide a deep understanding of the role of music in our

world. Early on in his career, Andy took an interest in Irish music and has now been playing in that style for over twenty years. More recently Andy has pioneered the playing of Gypsy Jazz (the music of Django Rein-hardt) on the hammered dulcimer, a genre very few dulcimer players have explored. This has given Andy the opportunity to more fully utilize his percussion skills and to develop unrivaled chromatic techniques on the instrument.

www.andyyoungmusic.com

Jon Weinberg

Jon Weinberg has been play-ing guitar and hammered dulcimer for contra dances, wedding ceremonies, con-certs, and coffee houses throughout New England for over 20 years. He teaches hammered dulcimer lessons to students both in person and online via Skype, organ-

izes and leads the annual week-long Hammered Dulci-mer Chord Camp in New England each September, and is a regular workshop leader at dulcimer festivals in New England and beyond. Jon is a founding mem-ber of the contra dance bands Allemande North and Wild Card, and released his first CD About Time in 2013.

www.jonweinberg.com

Ted Yoder

Ted initially made a name for himself as the 2010 National Hammered Dulcimer Champi-on, but it was his tendency to take a popular or traditional song and 'Yoderize' it with his spectacularly unique use of the hammered dulcimer that really brought him to acclaim. Ted is often called upon to appear at hammered dulci-

mer events across the nation. But, this has been eclipsed by a growing demand for his raw perfor-mance on stages and in live shows, taking his audi-ence on a fresh musical journey.

Funfest Concerts

All evening concerts are by invitation and are held at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The Youth Concert is held at 10:00 Saturday morn-ing and is run entirely by youth. The Open Mike Concert is held at 1:30 on Saturday afternoon. If you wish to perform, you may sign up for a performance slot at the ODPC Office by 11:00 Saturday morning. You can also find plenty of im-promptu gatherings at campsites throughout the fairgrounds. Take a late evening walk and enjoy lis-tening to all the music! Please help to support our performers by purchas-ing their CDs. Each evening the CD Sales Area will be open at 10:00 following the concert, providing a venue for sales for those who performed that even-ing. Some may also sell CDs following each individu-al’s performance. If you shop during the concert, please speak softly and be considerate of those who are enjoying the show! We are most grateful to performer Scott Freeman for the use of the stage we have this year. He is transporting it from Indiana, and loaning it to us at no charge to the ODPC. Thank you so much, Scott!

www.dulcimers.com\festival www.originaldulcimerplayersclub.org